Five minutes of red light in the nose: a Yorkshire first that aims to stop surgical infections before they start

Patients coming in for hip and knee surgery at Pinderfields and Pontefract hospitals in West Yorkshire are the first in the country to receive a new five-minute treatment before their operations. Called Steriwave, it shines a specific wavelength of red light inside the nose — where bacteria, viruses and fungi quietly gather — and destroys them in minutes, lowering the chance they spread into the surgical wound. Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust decided to roll the technology out after a successful trial at Pontefract Hospital last year. 'We are very excited to be the first Trust to be giving patients access to this important new technology,' said Dr Stuart Bond, the Trust's consultant antimicrobial pharmacist and director of innovation.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: institutional program